The 19th International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution was held in Vienna, Austria 21 - 24 May 2007. Vienna is the capital of Austria with a population of 1.7 million people. Founded around 500 BC, Vienna was originally a Celtic settlement. It later becomes Roman frontier city and after a rich medieval history making it a cultular center for arts and cience. In 1805 Vienna becomes capital of the Austrian Empire and continues to play a major role in European and World history and politics.

The conference is organized by CIRED (Congrès International des Réseaux Electriques de Distribution or in English International Conference on Electricity Distribution) CIRED is set up as an international 'non-for-profit' association. The first CIRED Conference was in May 1971 organized as the result of growing interest on electricity distribution. The increased interest for the conference through the years has led the organizers to the decision to have the conference at different locations around Europe, while still keeping the two years cycle.

CIRED (http://www.cired.be/) "works for the purpose of increasing the business relevant competencies, skills and knowledge of those who see themselves as a part of the electricity  distribution community, whether they are from the utility, product, consultancy, service, business or Academic sector.

CIRED is dedicated to the design, construction and operation of public distribution systems and of large installations using electrical energy in industry, services and transport.

CIRED covers:

• The whole field of Electricity Distribution Systems and associated services, including dispersed and embedded generation issues
• The technical aspects of Electricity Supply
• Related aspects such as cost reduction, environment, organization and skills

To support its objectives CIRED's Technical Committee provides technical structure and content including papers and speakers to a biennial conference on developments and best practices in technology and management of electricity distribution. These conferences are open to participation by and contributions from experts from all over the world. The conferences which include an exhibition by manufacturing and other companies sup¬plying the electricity distribution industry are organized alternately by AIM (Belgium) and IEE (UK) who also bear the financial responsibility of the conferences."

The conference and exhibition were held in the Reed Centre which is located on the edge of the inner city. It was inaugurated at the start of 2004. This state-of-the-art modular congress centre offers a number of partitionable halls and numerous meeting facilities that create a perfect environment for such an event.

The goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for the participants to learn and discuss the issues of importance to the industry, as well as to become familiar with the advancements of technology related to distribution systems.  This goal is achieved through a combination of presentations, discussions, tutorials and an large industry exhibition showing the latest developments.

Pre-conference tutorial sessions to update your knowledge on the industry's latest developments.

The three full days of technical presentations and discussions covering the very latest challenges and issues facing electricity distribution today and in the future including, divided in six sessions, one of which was focused on Operation Control and Protection. The large number of papers presented by authors from all over the world covered a wide range of subjects with impact to the protection and control of distribution systems.

During the breaks and after the sessions the participants had a chance to discuss and see demonstrations of the latest distribution equipment, including protection, control and testing devices.

Technical visits and a social program that allowed the attendees to become familiar and enjoy everything that Vienna can offer completed the program.